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  • (upbeat music)

  • - Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy.

  • I have got such a treat for you today!

  • I've been excited about this for such a long time.

  • I am shortly going to welcome two lovely guests

  • who have generously given their time

  • to help teach you the differences

  • between Australian English, American English,

  • and British English.

  • This is going to be a two-part series,

  • today, we are going to focus on vocabulary

  • and then in the next part of the video,

  • we are focusing on pronunciation.

  • We may all speak the same language: English,

  • but we have very different accents

  • and we speak with different vocabularies.

  • So this video is perfect for improving your vocabulary

  • but if you want to improve your pronunciation

  • and your listening skills even further,

  • then I highly recommend the special method

  • of combining reading books

  • whilst listening to their audiobook counterpart on Audible.

  • This is how you use the method.

  • Take a book that you have already read in English

  • or a book that you would like to read in English,

  • I've got plenty of recommendations down below

  • in the description box, and read that book

  • whilst listening to the audiobook version on Audible.

  • Reading alone will not help you with your pronunciation

  • because English isn't a strictly phonetic language.

  • The way a word is written in English

  • may not give you much indication at all

  • as to how it's pronounced in English.

  • But if you listen to a word

  • at the same time as reading it,

  • your brain will start making connections.

  • And the next time you hear that word,

  • you'll know exactly how it's spelt,

  • and the next time you see that word written down,

  • you'll know exactly how it's pronounced.

  • It is such an effective method

  • and the best part is you can get one free audiobook,

  • that's a 30-day free trial on Audible,

  • all you've got to do is on the link

  • in the description box and sign up.

  • I've got loads of recommendations down there for you.

  • Right, let's get on with the lesson and welcome our guests.

  • Firstly, I would like to welcome Emma to the channel.

  • - Hey there, I'm Emma from the mmmEnglish YouTube channel,

  • coming at you from Perth in Western Australia.

  • - And we also have Vanessa.

  • - Hi I'm Vanessa and I live in North Carolina in the U.S..

  • I run the YouTube channel Speak English With Vanessa.

  • - It's so lovely to have Emma and Vanessa on the channel.

  • I've known Emma for a very, very long time,

  • four years now and I've recently got to know Vanessa.

  • Both of them have fantastic YouTube channels

  • and all of their information is in the description box

  • if you want to follow them.

  • So I have got some pictures and Vanessa, Emma

  • and I are going to tell you how we would say

  • what's in these pictures in our own country.

  • You might be surprised at some of the answers.

  • Okay so let's start with this one.

  • - In the U.S. these are chips, 100% just chips.

  • - I can't believe you started with this one.

  • These are chips.

  • - We call these crisps, crisps.

  • - The other word that you used, Lucy,

  • is the most complicated word in the English language to say.

  • So let's just call them chips and move along.

  • - Yeah, I'll give you that one.

  • Crisps is a notoriously difficult word

  • for learners of English.

  • It's the sps sound at the end, crisps.

  • You'll find a lot of people mispronouncing them as crips,

  • crips, when they should be crisps.

  • So here is the next one and it gets even more complicated

  • because in the UK we call these chips.

  • So in the U.S., the cold version is chips

  • and in the UK the hot version is chips.

  • Let's see it what Vanessa has to say about this.

  • What does she call them?

  • - These are French fries.

  • I know that they're not really French

  • but we still call them French fries

  • or you can just say fries by themselves.

  • - The next one's chips as well, right?

  • They're hot chips. - Hot chips, oh my god!

  • Hot chips, Australians just call everything chips then.

  • It is worth noting that if you go to England

  • and you order fries or French fries,

  • we know exactly what you mean.

  • Okay, next we have this one.

  • - We call these cookies

  • or chocolate chip cookies specifically.

  • - Okay they are biscuits.

  • Don't really hear people saying cookie.

  • - Yes, two against one!

  • These for us are biscuits as well

  • and we would use cookie to refer to an American style,

  • normally, chocolate chip cookie.

  • However if you use the word biscuit in the United States,

  • you might get something that you are not expecting.

  • Vanessa has more on this.

  • - If you ask someone, "Do you have any biscuits?"

  • or, "I want a biscuit," they would not give you this,

  • instead they'd give you a savoury kind

  • of fluffy type piece of bread.

  • A biscuit is savoury and a cookie is sweet.

  • - So there we have it.

  • If you fancy something sweet with your coffee in America,

  • don't ask for a biscuit. (chuckles)

  • You will be bitterly disappointed.

  • Okay, Vanessa got very passionate about this next one.

  • Very passionate.

  • Here is the picture.

  • Vanessa seems to think

  • that she knows the absolute correct answer

  • and she's even done research.

  • I did not expect Emma and Vanessa

  • to get books out for this video.

  • - I have the proof that my answer is the most correct

  • because you can see my two-year-old son is obsessed

  • with trucks, we have so many truck books.

  • Let me read to you.

  • What truck do you need?

  • A tractor trailer. (chuckles)

  • So this is also what I would call it a tractor trailer.

  • I might call it a semi.

  • - Alright that yellow thing is a truck.

  • - So Vanessa thinks it's a tractor trailer

  • and she's very, very sure about it.

  • - In all of these books, they call it a tractor trailer

  • so we're gonna go with that one.

  • - That really tickled me.

  • - Emma thinks it's a truck.

  • In the UK we would call this a lorry, a lorry.

  • - It's a truck.

  • - Whatever Emma, it's a lorry.

  • Okay, what about this next one?

  • What have the women got up here?

  • - These girls all have bangs.

  • - We would definitely say fringe.

  • Bangs is probably becoming more popular,

  • especially colloquially.

  • - So in the UK, we definitely call this a fringe

  • and when I started hearing the word bangs in movies

  • and things like that,

  • I was really genuinely confused.

  • Okay what about this next one?

  • - This is candy.

  • - They are lollies, lollies.

  • - Lollies, that is so cute!

  • So in British English these are sweets.

  • Or sometimes if you're talking to a child,

  • they might call them sweeties.

  • Lollies for us are sweets on a stick.

  • Right, what about this next one?

  • - This is a swimsuit.

  • Some people might call it a bathing suit,

  • you can also call this a one-piece.

  • - Okay, this one's really funny.

  • In Melbourne where I'm from,

  • it's really common to call them togs

  • but no one else in Australia really calls them togs,

  • they call it swimmers.

  • In Sydney they call them cozzies or costumes

  • but generally it's swimmers or bathers.

  • Oh gosh, that's another one, bathers or swimmers.

  • - Oh my word, I did not expect to receive

  • so many different ways of saying swimming costume.

  • This for us is a swimming costume.

  • We can also say one-piece

  • and we can also shorten it down to cozzy.

  • I remember my mum saying, "get your cosy on,"

  • before my swimming lessons when I was a child

  • but that's quite a childish thing.

  • Okay what about this next one?

  • - This is the forest.

  • - That is definitely a forest.

  • - No!

  • It's the woods, woods, plural.

  • This is definitely the woods.

  • I mean in general we say the woods.

  • Forest implies a huge, huge area of trees, of woodland.

  • - The woods sounds kind of like something you might hear

  • in an old-fashioned fairy tale.

  • - Yeah well, Vanessa, sometimes life

  • in England is like an old-fashioned fairy tale.

  • I think a lot of Americans have this vision of England

  • as a place with so much culture and history,

  • like a fairy tale, and then they come over

  • and they are just so disappointed.

  • Okay what about this next one?

  • - This is a bathroom.

  • You might say it's a restroom

  • but it would be really unusual to call a place

  • that actually has a bathtub a restroom.

  • Usually we use the term restroom for public places.

  • - That room is a bathroom.

  • Yeah, it's a bathroom.

  • - Okay so Vanessa touched on restroom and bathroom.

  • Now we would never use the word restroom in British English.

  • If we were in a public place

  • and we are looking for a bathroom, we would say toilet.

  • However if there is a bath there, like a bathtub,

  • then yes, we might say bathroom as well.

  • But we would ask where's the toilet.

  • - If you say where's the toilet,

  • most people in the US would just say,

  • "It's in the bathroom."

  • - I mean she is not wrong.

  • The toilet is in the bathroom.

  • There is also a slang word which I use a lot

  • which is the loo, where's the loo.

  • I went to the States for a business trip

  • and I asked people where the loo was

  • and they were utterly confused.

  • "The loo, what's the loo?"

  • All right let's move on to the next.

  • - This is an apartment.

  • This is mostly called an apartment.

  • - We would never say flat.

  • - Okay so in British English this is a flat.

  • We have a block of flats;

  • I've lived in many flats in my life.

  • We don't use the word apartment.

  • Okay the next one.

  • Maybe the picture wasn't clear enough for this one

  • because Emma did get a bit confused

  • but she gave us all of the options, good old Emma.

  • - This is a grocery store.

  • - I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at in that image

  • but it could be a trolley, it could be an aisle,

  • or it could be a supermarket.

  • - A bingo, it's a supermarket for us as well,

  • or we call it the shops.

  • I'm going to the supermarket; I'm going to the shops.

  • The shops is more general, it could mean any type of shop.

  • We would never say grocery store.

  • We might however say grocers, the grocers.

  • This is a shop that just sells fruits and vegetables.

  • All right, next one.

  • - This is a comforter.

  • - Oh my god, how weird is the word comforter?

  • That's weird.

  • In Australia that's called a doona.

  • - (laughs) I love that Emma is saying

  • that the word comforter is weird

  • and then she goes to say that in Australia it's a doona.

  • That's weirder, Emma.

  • So in British English this is a duvet, a duvet,

  • which apparently Vanessa finds weird.

  • See we will find each other weird.

  • I didn't know what a duvet was, maybe I'm very sheltered,

  • but I didn't know what a duvet was until I visited Europe.

  • We just do not have those in the U.S.

  • - Okay I feel there's gonna be a lot of conflict

  • about this next one.

  • - These are bell peppers.

  • - Okay they're capsicums; red, green, yellow capsicums.

  • - No!

  • They're just plain old peppers.

  • Red peppers, green peppers, and yellow peppers.

  • Capsicum, what?

  • This isn't Latin, this is English.

  • Okay another one that's gonna cause a bit of conflict.

  • - These are rain boots and also the jacket

  • that goes with it is a raincoat or a rain jacket.

  • I guess in the U.S. we like really clear,

  • straightforward names for items like this.

  • Rain boots, what's it for?

  • It's for the rain, it's very clear, boots for the rain.

  • - I mean she's not wrong, is she?

  • American English is sometimes more simplified

  • than British English and this is no bad thing, really.

  • Let's see what Emma has to say.

  • - When it's muddy and rainy, I would put my gumboots on

  • to walk around in the wet.

  • - Yeah, I mean we would we never say gumboots.

  • I think I've heard my grandma say it

  • so it might be quite an old-fashioned thing.

  • In British English we say wellies or wellie boots.

  • Are you ready for this next one, are you ready?

  • Because what Australians call these is frankly shocking.

  • Let's hear from Vanessa first.

  • - These are flip-flops.

  • - Yeah, these are flip-flops, Emma.

  • What do you call them?

  • When we go to the beach in Australia we wear our thongs.

  • Our thongs, it's plural and we're talking about the shoes

  • on our feet, they are thongs.

  • (laughing)

  • - So I have to explain to you what thongs,

  • what a thong is in British English and American English.

  • A song is like a G-string.

  • It's a type of underwear where there is just one string

  • at the back instead of more fabric.

  • If Emma said to me, "Can I borrow some thongs?"

  • I would probably lend her some

  • but I'd be a bit concerned.

  • Okay, next one, where would you go to fill up your car?

  • - This is a gas station where you put gas into your car.

  • - So when I fill up my car,

  • I fill it up at the petrol station.

  • - Ah, good, I am with Emma again on this one.

  • She's redeeming herself after the thong situation.

  • Yes, we also call this a petrol station.

  • The fuel that we put into our car is petrol.

  • I spent much of my childhood confused

  • but I was especially confused by the fact

  • that Americans put gas into their car

  • 'cause I thought well petrols are liquid.

  • Turns out it's just short for gasoline.

  • Now the next one's quite interesting,

  • I want to know what they call a shop

  • that only sells alcohol,

  • and this is interesting because in America,

  • their attitude towards alcohol is slightly different.

  • We're very open, maybe too open to alcohol

  • in the UK and Australia.

  • The alcohol is more controlled

  • by the government in the States, in the United States.

  • - This is an ABC store which I just learned

  • 'cause I just looked it up,

  • it stands for alcohol beverage controlled state.

  • So this is a story that sells only alcohol

  • and that last word state is because it is run by the state

  • or run by the government.

  • - Now let's see what Emma calls it because I have heard

  • that Australians have some fun names for places like these.

  • - When I go and get a bottle of wine,

  • I go to the bottle shop,

  • which in Australia we also call the bottle-o.

  • - Bottle-o, love it!

  • It would sound so stupid in a British accent.

  • I'm just going to the bottle-o,

  • do you need anything?

  • Bottle-o, yeah it only works really

  • when you pronounce your Ts as duh, bottle-o.

  • In British English,

  • we call this an off licence, an off licence.

  • Okay what about this next one?

  • I feel like I'm going to get ganged up on here.

  • - These are pants.

  • - Pants, pants.

  • Old people might call them trousers.

  • - Well excuse me, I must be very old then

  • because these are hands down trousers, they are trousers.

  • We do use the word pants to refer to underpants.

  • Oh, 'cause they go under your pants,

  • yeah maybe they are right.

  • My whole life has been a lie.

  • Underpants 'cause they go under your pants.

  • Ugh, undertrousers, doesn't work, does it?

  • Well anyway, these are trousers and I'm not old Emma, yet.

  • Now what do we call this?

  • The little walking space beside a road.

  • - This is a sidewalk.

  • - The concrete beside the road where people walk

  • in Australia is called a footpath.

  • - Interesting, we don't say either of these,

  • we say pavement, pavement.

  • Now we would never say sidewalk, we do say footpath,

  • but a footpath is normally not beside a road.

  • A pavement is just beside a road

  • and a footpath is anywhere else.

  • Okay another car related one, what do we call this?

  • - This is a highway or you could call it an interstate.

  • - A highway or maybe a freeway in Australia.

  • - Ooh, we don't say on either of these either.

  • We never say highway in British English.

  • Interstate, well we don't have states

  • so that doesn't work either.

  • Freeway, no.

  • Freeway sounds dangerous,

  • it sounds like you can do whatever you want.

  • You're just free to drive however you like.

  • We call these motorways, motorways.

  • Okay, what is this dashing young man wearing?

  • - This guy is wearing a shirt that has a name

  • that's maybe not so kind.

  • We call this a wife beater.

  • - That is terrible and this word has actually bled

  • into the British English vocabulary,

  • although in general we would call this a vest

  • or you could also call it a tank top or a tank,

  • but that again is another Americanism,

  • this for us really is a vest.

  • And what about Emma?

  • - That dashingly handsome guy is wearing a singlet.

  • - A singlet, I mean I've never really heard

  • that word before.

  • It really is so interesting

  • that our vocabularies differ so widely.

  • Right, that is it for our lesson today on British English,

  • Australian English and American English vocabulary.

  • I really hope you enjoyed it

  • and I hope you learned something.

  • Thank you so much to Emma and Vanessa

  • for coming on this channel

  • and helping me to make this video.

  • As I said before, I've left all

  • of their information in the description box.

  • Make sure you watch the other video

  • in this two-part series on pronunciation.

  • So we're going to be focusing on the same words

  • that are pronounced differently in each accent.

  • Don't forget to check out Audible,

  • you can get your free audiobook,

  • that's a 30-day free trial,

  • all you've got to do is click on the link

  • in the description box to sign up.

  • And don't forget to connect with me

  • on all of my social media.

  • I've got my Facebook, my Instagram, and my Twitter.

  • And I shall see you soon for another video.

  • (lips smack) (upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

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